Less than two weeks to departure date and I am super excited.  I’ve been working out at the gym for four months now, getting in shape for “several miles per day” of touring.  Let’s hope I started early enough, and that most of those miles are on the bus–not on my feet!

With my church Women’s Group, I recently completed Beth Moore’s study on the Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120-134); which are songs and prayers of the Jews of ancient times as they made their required annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem, three times a year, to worship in the Temple.  These pilgrimages were made in observance of three important feasts: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths (aka Tabernacles).

I feel particularly blessed that I am able to make my own pilgrimage now, with the richness of Jerusalem’s history fresh in my mind.